The Reactive Nature of Muslim Thought

*This is an edited version of a previous essay of mine*

The topic of Islam (or indeed, any religion in general) and its relationship with science and other intellectual disciplines is obviously a touchy issue. Two stereotypes tend to dominate in the present psyche – regressive primitives, and modern reformists. The later is often praised, but more often than not this is undeserved. The religion today suffers not only from the sicknesses of the old, but those of the new – not many people appreciate the dangers of modernist thought in the sciences and humanities to the intellectual state of humanity at large. In today’s increasingly globalised world, it is essential that Muslims and other followers of genuine religions understand themselves in regards to this issue.

In Islam, there are essentially two main classes of people concerned with religious, intellectual and philosophical questions: the ulema and other authorities, and the religious modernists. Respectively these groups often occupy these general attitudes towards science as well as other things ‘Western’. The first is a trend that has become unfortunately very prevalent amongst the puritanical movement; that is, the rejection of science and ‘Western things’ altogether. The second, preserve of the modernists, is an obsession with Western science, and the belief that the West is strong because of science.

That is, that one can espouse the merits of Western science whilst performing one’s religious obligations, and everything will be hunky-dory. That the problems of Western science are not due to intellectual clashes, but ones of ethical application in that Western science is safe and sound if you just apply Islamic ethics. This viewpoint fails to recognize that science is not an objective entity in itself, but value-determined and based upon the imposition of culturally-specific categories and assumptions on nature – if one civilization is to make use of the science of another, it must adapt it to its own framework.

The values and assumptions that drive contemporary Western science have gained man prodigious knowledge in certain areas but is ultimately narrow and unconcerned with the deeper aspects of reality. The ultimate goal of Islamic science is integrative; promoting the contemplation of the universe, and using the insight gained from such contemplation to improve the self and remould it to become more in accordance with the divine decree, and thus also improve the surrounding world. Modern science in contrast is characterized by the dispersive externalization of action and the violent tearing apart of man and nature.

Likewise, in regards to philosophy, modernized Muslims and Easterners in general constantly compare this Eastern philosopher to that Western philosopher, in an effort to give respectability to the former. This fails to acknowledge the fact that contemporary Western philosophy is essentially different to that of the East. The majority Occidental trend is to place emphasis on and conflate philosophy with reason, with its concern with analysis and sense data, at the expense of a wholistic approach which treats reason as but one faculty amongst others. Eastern philosophy traditionally operates only as an aspect of a larger path. The anti-metaphysical character of modern Western philosophy means that if we do not consider this distinction, then all efforts at comparison will fail as we reduce all content to the lowest common denominator.

Such attempts at synthesis are the wolf in sheep’s clothing. The modernists, with their particular educational background, have a fetish for all things western and a sense of inferiority related to all things Islamic, mistaking their own disequilibrium for that of the religion itself. This is the greatest problem of the Muslim world and most deeply afflicts those who would be most expected to face the challenges of the west and modernity. I do not criticize the West, I do not criticize Western culture per se, but I do criticize the problems that have developed in the West.

What is lacking in the Muslim world today is a thorough examination and careful criticism of all that is happening in the modern world. The conflation of Western science with Islamic science has produced many Muslim scientists, but very few Islamic scientists. Unless one applies an Islamic world view, attempts to harmonize Islam and modern western phenomena are doomed because the appropriate evaluative criteria are bypassed. Islam is seen as a partial entity to be complemented by some modern ideology rather than as a complete system and world view in itself. The rapidly changing whims of the day are itself proof of the fallacy of such an approach, and ideologically-charged movements in general which universalize the contextually specific.

We live in a time where paradoxically, as people in the West become more aware of the peaking and gradual deterioration of their civilizational paradigm, modernized Muslims have begun to be a force to be reckoned with. Even with the weakening of confidence in the west, Muslims are still on the receiving end in both ideas and material objects, from philosophy down to fashion. Lacking confidence in their own intellectual tradition, many modernized Muslims are like a blank slate waiting for input from the West, the precise ideas they receive depending on which country or region they have the strongest association with. People rarely bother to adopt a truly Islamic intellectual attitude which operates from an immutable centre and in a positive manner of discernment.

Modernized Muslims praise Islam because they say it paved the way for the Renaissance and Enlightenment. This is true, but is has often been forgotten that the Islamic elements were only used after being deprived of their distinctive character and broader philosophical framework. This value criterion is made doubly ludicrous since it was the Renaissance and Enlightenment which became the breeding grounds for so many of the problems facing humanity today.

Too many Muslims are unaware of not only the roots of western movements, but the history and development of such movements and wait until they occupy centre stage in the western psyche, and only then they start to at like it existed. For example, in the case of environmental degradation, how many Muslims did not wait until Al Gore made his movie based on a Powerpoint presentation before even thinking about it?! And how few have thought about it in the light of the rich intellectual Islamic traditions concerning nature? Unfortunately, such study has mostly been made only as a result of an inferiority complex in an effort to prove that ‘the Muslims did it first’. Rarely is this heritage treated as a legitimate path in itself.

In their attempts to confront the problems of modernity, Muslims are constantly using apologetics and jumping through hoops to show somehow that this or that element of Islam corresponds to whatever is fashionable in the west at the present (I myself admit that I was frequently guilty of this in the past), while other elements for which there are no western equivalent are ignored. For example Muslims often make such a big fuss about the egalitarian nature of Islam not because they necessarily see it as true in the Islamic framework (which it is), but because egalitarianism is what is currently popular in the West. By affirming such obvious and easily defensible things, they have evaded the basic challenge which threatens the heart of Islam itself. It is through the lack of a critical and discerning spirit that many modernized Muslims possess a passive, servile and docile attitude towards whatever thought is in vogue. Superficialities like gangsta rap and what women wear at the beach are easily criticized, but few bother to tackle the fundamental fallacies of our times.

I have talked about the two main groups of the traditionalists and the modernists. But a third group is gradually arising, who are traditional like the ulema but also know the modern world. It is precisely members of this third group that we need more of.

To save Islam, a true intelligentsia needs to be developed which is both traditional and fully conversant with the modern world. Traditionalists as described here too often resort to answering the challenges of the modern West merely through religious jurisprudence (even in interactions with non-Muslims!). Muslims need to revive the study of Islamic sciences and humanities. They need to abandon their sense of inferiority and go on the intellectual offensive and not just the defensive without succumbing to so-called ‘traditional’ ideologies which are ironically actually products of modernist thought, such as Wahabism.

Contemporary Muslims must act from where and what they are – physically, culturally, and spiritually -  if they and humanity in general are to have a hope of coping with the problems of modernism. In turn, by learning from the Islamic intellectual disciplines, the West will greatly benefit by rediscovering the truths which were at the heart of its traditions but were forgotten or discarded with time. By basing their understandings on this rather than subjective and ever-changing modern trends, the East/West divide itself can be transcended, both geographically and within one’s own being.